Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Killing Them Softly (2012)
Brad Pitt's grim crime thriller “Killing Them Softly” already has much box office
notoriety: A money loser slapped with an “F” from CinemaScore. Hell with
that. This is ballsy filmmaking of the highest order. Andrew Dominik -– who made “Assassination of Jesse James” with Pitt -– is behind “KSF” as director/writer, and he is not out
to please anyone. We follow two low-end criminals (Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn)
who rob a mafia-run card game, and escape with cash in hand and angry
men in pursuit, one of them a world-weary hit man played by Pitt.
“KSF” is set in 2008, during the economic meltdown and Obama/McCain
election, and Dominik uses the panic and uncertainty of the time to explode the
panic and uncertainty onscreen. There are no heroes, jokes, or happy endings. It’s
a devastating punch about real criminal life, peppered with sad-sacks,
drug-users, and average joes in over their heads. Not necessarily evil. Unintended fuck-ups. Dominik dares
say our politicians, Wall Street bankers, and Founding Fathers are/were no
different. It's the American way. Even a tedious slow-mo killing and
oddball fireworks scene can’t hide that “KSF” is shockingly true cinematic art. A-
Labels:
2008,
2012,
Andrew Dominik,
Ben Mendelsohn,
Brad Pitt,
crime,
economy,
election,
Killing Them Softly,
mafia,
murder,
Obama,
politics,
Scoot McNairy,
violence
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